newbie question - quilting costs

Two of us newbies get together every Monday afternoon to learn to quilt
--
the blind leading the blind. Now we need to know what is a reasonable
price
for having the quilting done on a queen-sized quilt? $200-$300? Our
newbie
eyes got big and our newbie jaws dropped. Neither of us is usually
speechless. . . .
--
Kay Ahr
Reno/Sparks, Nevada USA

"Jan" wrote in message
. 125.201...
It honestly depends (or at least should) on how you want it quilted. I'm
sure Kathy A will throw her thoughts in here,

Thoughts? I'm not sure my brain is capable of any this morning. LOL

I see a huge range of prices -- when customers ask me, I usually tell them
between $80 and $800, and everything in between. It all comes down to the
skill of the quilter and how much time you want her (or him!) to spend on
the quilt. Denser quilting is more money, straight line work (ie
stitch-in-the-ditch, outline, following templates) is more, changing thread
colors is more.

My standard advice about choosing a quilter is not to look at price alone. A
cheap price isn't worth it if you aren't happy with the results. Ask to see
samples of their previous work, especially work that is similar in style to
what you want. If the work that you want is out of your budget (and there's
nothing wrong with that!), then you can always quilt it yourself. I did a
number of queen (and king) size quilts on my home machine before I started
longarming. Spend some time practicing, baste the quilt well, and take
plenty of breaks, and you can easily quilt it yourself. If nothing else,
you'll appreciate why longarmers charge what they do. *grin*

--
Kathy A. (Woodland, CA)
Queen of Fabric Tramps
http://www.kayneyquilting.com ,
remove the obvious to reply

How much you want to pay for long arm quilting depends on how special
the quilt will be in the future. If it is not a special quilt but just
a "wanted to sew something" quilt then you could have it quilted for
less but the type of quilting would be not as impressive. Visit long
arm quilters in your area and ask to see samples of quilts and
quilting styles with a price list. I love feather quilting but save
the cost of that type of quilting for wedding gifts or quilts I know I
want to keep and use for years. The quilts I donate to the retreat
center are almost all done with an all-over leaf pattern. The quilter
knows the pattern well and can almost do it in her sleep. She charges
me much less than if she had done a custom pattern or other all-over
patterns. Long arm quilting is not cheap but remember the machine cost
between $15,000 and $20,000 plus time for the operator. Think in terms
of how long it would take you to quilt the piece on your own machine.

If you can't handle the expense of the long arm quilter then I would
suggest that you make smaller quilts which are easier to quilt on your
own machine. Don't give-up piecing!

Susan
On 10 Feb 2006 05:02:52 -0800, "Kay Ahr" wrote:

Two of us newbies get together every Monday afternoon to learn to quilt
--
the blind leading the blind. Now we need to know what is a reasonable
price
for having the quilting done on a queen-sized quilt? $200-$300? Our
newbie
eyes got big and our newbie jaws dropped. Neither of us is usually
speechless. . . .

The price of a packet of quilting needles, a couple of reels of
quilting thread and a thimble? Or some nice machine quilting needles,
a walking foot and a free-machining foot and some pretty thread.

And of course, a book (library?) on which ever method you choose.

After all. if you are learning to 'quilt' you need to learn to
'quilt'!

Start small, and it will come surprisingly quickly, and think how
proud you will be of your hand quilting.

--
Sally at the Seaside ~~~~~~~~~~ (uk)
http://community.webshots.com/user/sallyswin


On 10 Feb 2006 05:02:52 -0800, "Kay Ahr" wrote:

Two of us newbies get together every Monday afternoon to learn to quilt
--
the blind leading the blind. Now we need to know what is a reasonable
price
for having the quilting done on a queen-sized quilt? $200-$300? Our
newbie
eyes got big and our newbie jaws dropped. Neither of us is usually
speechless. . . .

In article .com,
"Kay Ahr" wrote:

Two of us newbies get together every Monday afternoon to learn to quilt
--
the blind leading the blind. Now we need to know what is a reasonable
price
for having the quilting done on a queen-sized quilt? $200-$300? Our
newbie
eyes got big and our newbie jaws dropped. Neither of us is usually
speechless. . . .


If your area of Nevada is as expensive as this one for quilting
services, $200-$300 is pretty much standard. :S Fortunately for my
quilts, I like to do the quilting myself, or I'd probably just have a
pile of tops.
--
Sandy in Henderson, near Las Vegas
my ISP is earthlink.net -- put sfoster1(at) in front
http://home.earthlink.net/~sfoster1

AKA Dame Sandy, Minister of Education

I'm kind of in the advanced beginner stages of quilting and am in the
midst of quilting my fourth full-sized quilt on my kitchen table with a
regular sewing machine. I've also done several wall-hangings in between
and I think they help bolster my quilting skills on a project that is
easier to handle.

Start with a well-basted quilt sandwich and do basic straight stitching
around blocks and things. Work on one small portion at a time (starting
in the middle and working out). I put a cardtable at one side of the
table to catch the bulk of the quilt as I struggle moving it around,
and I use those rubbery gloves called Machingers. It takes a lot of
time (days and weeks.....) so I don't kill my arms and back and
shoulders, but I think it's been gratifying to do my own quilting. Each
one has been different, and they all hold together.

My friend always sends her quilts off for quilting, but I am still in
the stage of "I wanna do it myself!!!" and view the process as part of
the whole package. (However, my friend has completed many more big
quilts in less time this way, so I might adapt her viewpoint in the
future!)

Annie in NW Washington

The suggestions for machine quilting the top yourself are the same
thing I would recommend. Also, you can assemble your quilt top in 4 or
more sections and quilt it a section at a time then assemble the whole
quilt after all the quilting is finished. That's what I like to do!
There are books on how to do this or we can give you a bunch of (prolly
conflicting! LOL) suggestions. Good luck!

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO. (where the cost of living is CHEAP- I
paid $165 each for two queens about 5 years ago)

Kay Ahr wrote:
Two of us newbies get together every Monday afternoon to learn to quilt
--
the blind leading the blind. Now we need to know what is a reasonable
price
for having the quilting done on a queen-sized quilt? $200-$300? Our
newbie
eyes got big and our newbie jaws dropped. Neither of us is usually
speechless. . . .
--
Kay Ahr
Reno/Sparks, Nevada USA

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO. wrote:
you can assemble your quilt top in 4 or
more sections and quilt it a section at a time then assemble the whole
quilt after all the quilting is finished.
I have done that, too. It helps a lot. I have a step-by-step
documentation of the process I used at
http://webpages.charter.net/jaccola/..._Sections.html.

I have also reduced the bulk of some large quilts by cutting away the
batting from parts of it while I quilt the center, then adding the
batting back in and finishing the quilting. More info on that method
toward the middle of http://webpages.charter.net/jaccola/Quilts2005.html

There are entire books on the subject. I recently bought "Machine
Quilting in Sections" by Marti Mitchell. I haven't read it yet, but it
looks promising.

Julia in MN


Julia in MN


--
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http://webpages.charter.net/jaccola/

Howdy!
Quilted by hand or machine?
;-D
Ragmop/Sandy
"Kay Ahr" wrote in message
oups.com...
Two of us newbies get together every Monday afternoon to learn to quilt
--
the blind leading the blind. Now we need to know what is a reasonable
price
for having the quilting done on a queen-sized quilt? $200-$300? Our
newbie
eyes got big and our newbie jaws dropped. Neither of us is usually
speechless. . . .
--
Kay Ahr
Reno/Sparks, Nevada USA

I like this idea. Wow! I had found the idea of quilting a queen size
quilt intimidating but this sounds very doable. Thanks.

Shana